Scrub, Jay

bathing
daily blue jay waits on
porcelain bowl perched on purple glass for
cool, clear water, warmed by bold sunlight

squawking
setting stick-like legs on ledge
neck cocking left…looking right…all around,
chirps signaling anticipatory delight 

teetering
why does he linger, why not splash in?
but oh when he does hummingbirds hear
a nearby waterfall spilling upon the blue star carpet

fluttering
cerulean jay jumps in joyful flicks
beak under, beak up!
wings dipping shaking extending

sending
crystal pearls streaming onto yarrow stalks
dappling sweet pea, verbena, gaura…
cleansing azure feathers

Photo Credit: Sevgi Gümüs for Pexels

dispensing
life-giving water to leaf cups
droplets like luminous snow globes
filled with flower petals

sprinkling
glorious water upon ever-thirsty everything
growing in, through, up, from God’s soil
nature’s aspersion!

rejoicing
right there, reminiscent of Asperges,
wings for an aspergillum
blessing the garden in goodness

dislodging
debris with every dip-darting wing flap
plumage deep underwater
head tipping and sipping

redeeming
white sheen from dust-blue feathers
dry wind deposited, brought down from flight,
dreary unless daily water cleanses

Photo Credit: Ana Beatriz Verboonen for Pexels

springing
onto hyssop branches
refreshed rejuvenated renewed
jeeer! jeeer! jay summons

calling
sparrow, starling, swallow,
sapsucker, siskin
your turn! your turn!

exhilarating
jump from safe branches of your davidia tree
singing psalmy, balmy songs of
salvation in the soft salvia blooms

Photo Credit: Alexas Fotos for Pexels